The public filled the Burley Middle School auditorium tonight (likely over 150 people were in attendance) to give the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors three hours of feedback on the North Pointe rezoning request [project website].  Almost 40 speakers testified, many sporting buttons either for or against the project, which if approved would bring to the US 29 North corridor a mixed use development on 264 acres with about 900 new homes and over 500,000 sq. ft. of additional retail space.

Yesterday, developer Chuck Rotgin was surprised to learn that the Board would announce to the public tonight that no decision would be made at this meeting.  Another work session will be scheduled for June 7, 2006, followed by another public hearing, before the Board of Supervisors is expected to take action on the project.

I was unable to attend the first part of the public hearing [thus I am looking forward to hearing the podcast too], but my understanding is that supporters outweighed opponents of the project both in the audience and at the microphone.  I expect the Daily Progress will have a good assessment of this in tomorrow's paper.

Late in the public hearing, after a number of speakers had suggested the County was dragging its feet on approving new developments, Chairman Dennis Rooker interrupted the public hearing and stated, "It has not been the County that has held up this proposal."  Mr. Rooker cited developments initiated after North Pointe including Albemarle Place, Belvedere Farm, and Old Trail Village  which have all been approved by the County.

At the closing of the public hearing, Mr. Rotgin asked for a vote to take place at the June 14th meeting.  Chairman Dennis Rooker informed him that the timing of a public hearing and vote was largely dependent on the proffers being finalized in advance.  According to Mr. Rooker, the proffers for this round of review were revised as recently as today and thus could not be provided to the Board well in advance of tonight's public hearing.

Click here to review all North Pointe blog postings.

Listen to podcast:

Download northpointe20060510a.mp3
Download northpointe20060510b.mp3

UPDATE: In the event you are having difficulty listening to these podcasts, you may try this alternative download location -- Podcast A (22.8 MB) / Podcast B (10.3 MB)

Here are the highlights:

Podcast A:

• 1:00 -- Introduction by Dennis Rooker
• 1:18 -- Staff report from Mark Graham and Elaine Echols
• 33:40 -- Comments from project applicant Chuck Rotgin
• 38:10 -- Presentation by applicant representative Valerie Long
• 47:30 -- Comments from the Board
• 1:00:28 -- Remarks from the public

Podcast B:

• 0:52 -- Remarks from the public
• 49:01 -- Comments from the Board
• 52:25 -- Closing remarks from Chuck Rotgin

Brian Wheeler